The story
- Old English · inherited fromrēafere“reaver; robber; spoiler”
- Middle English · inherited fromrevere
- English todayreaver
From Middle English revere (also revour, reiver, refar, reavere), from Old English rēafere (“reaver; robber; spoiler”), equivalent to reave + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Roower, Dutch rover, German Räuber, Swedish rövare, Icelandic raufari. Compare robber, rover.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.